Papers
Each of the articles in this section expresses the writer's own view and it should not be assumed that all contributors agree with everything that is included. The editors are keen to stimulate thinking and the exploration of a variety of opinions and perspectives.
Does belief in life after death constitute an essential part of Christian faith?
Flood Myths of the Ancient Near East and Biblical accounts of The Flood
The Place of Amos in the Hebrew tradition of Prophesy
The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith: a review of the quests for the historical Jesus
What do we mean when we say ‘Jesus Saves’? How do Christians understand the person and work of Jesus Christ?
English Methodist Identity. Originally written in 2009, revised 2020 and available here in full.
Rewritten in 2016 in a more popular format and published in the Lidgett Park Methodist Church magazine, The Link, as What is the Point of Methodism? An eight-part series on Methodist identity.
Methodism and Other Faiths: a critical examination of the contribution of Methodism to a theology of inter-faith dialogue
The need for natural theology: a critical evaluation of the natural-revealed theology debate and its relevance for contemporary discussion
Victorian challenges to English Christianity and their relevance today
What Did Luther Ever Do For Us? – A series reflecting on the influence of Martin Luther on Methodism
In Christ Alone? Really?: a critical examination of Getty's and Townend's controversial hymn
Additional comment by Stanley Pearson
Paper by Fred P. Langley
Fred Langley died a few days short of his 92nd birthday in 2016. He was a much loved and respected member of Lidgett Park Methodist Church, to which he made an enormous contribution in a life of service. For all that his liberal and progressive outlook was deeply critical of much of Methodism's evangelical theological tradition, he was deeply interested in Methodist history and committed to the Methodist ethos. A lecturer in the former Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University), Fred was a man with an active mind who set much-appreciated quizzes for the members of Lidgett Park Methodist Church and loved to organise and take people out on History Mystery trails. He was in his 70s and retired when he undertook an Open University Course as part of which he did an investigation of the history of Methodism in Leeds. This paper, written in 1996, is the fruit of that research. I have printed it largely as he wrote it, except that I have placed the illustrations at their appropriate places in the text rather than in an appendix as he did, and I have omitted for reasons of copyright some facsimiles of original documents that he had included. (John S. Summerwill)
Papers on the Preacher Development website:
- The Book of Job by Michael Prince
- A Structured Way in Which Preachers Can Think About Their Retirement — an occasional paper by Revd Dr George Lovell
- Papers on medical ethics prepared for a local preacher conference in 2009 by three local preachers who are eminent clinicians:
- A Gut Feeling: some ethical and theological issues in contemporary medicine by Professor Peter D Howdle
- Issues in Medical Ethics by Dr Stanley Pearson
- End of Life by Dr Richard Vautrey
- A Gut Feeling: some ethical and theological issues in contemporary medicine by Professor Peter D Howdle